‘Empire’ Creator Blames ‘Growing Pains’ for dip in Quality
Actors Trai Byers, Bryshere ‘Yazz’ Gray, co-creator/Executive Producer Lee Daniels, and actor Jussie Smollett at The Paley Center “Empire” co-creator Lee Daniels admitted Friday the top-rated hip-hop soap opera had lost its way after a record-breaking first season — but vowed the US show was back to its best. Broadcast television’s number one program hit a high of almost 18 million viewers in its season one finale but episodes in the new season have dropped as low as nine million amid criticism over storylines. “What happened was growing pains,” Daniels told the PaleyFest TV festival in Los Angeles, agreeing with host Kevin Frazier that the show had gone “a little left.” “I think it would have happened to any show and I think that, though we still remained number one, we were learning, you know?”